Post length

Hello friends. It's great to see activity up here on the site. May I please make a recommendation for your posts though?

Make them longer. Really enjoying following your stories and seeing you out there writing, but we want to see more. It is so much easier to follow a story with a few longer posts than one with hundreds of two paragraph posts. I know when you get a big group of people together it can be hard to do all the cross talk that it takes to move the story along, but it's worth it.

How long should a post be? Well, technically there's no hard rule on it, but I try to follow the guideline of making it between 1 and 5 pages on MS Word at 12 point Times New Roman font. The real goal is to hit a plot point. What's a plot point? Call it the cliff hanger moment. The point that makes you want to turn the page or click to the next post in the thread. The arrival of a new character, that big killer line your character blurts out, the payoff moment. There can be big ones and small ones, but they're what the story turns on.

Will that mean you have to write for other characters. Absolutely. isn't this against the rules? Only without permission. Go read a Pack thread. You can have half a dozen characters milling around in and out of each other's posts. how do you handle this? Write where you think the story goes, what all thepertinent characters will do and say, then send it to your partners for approval. That gives them a chance to give you the thumbs up or make changes. If they have changes (Sorry, Jill just wouldn't handle it this way and she never cusses. Maybe instead she throws the plate at the wall and says, "Golly gee wilikers you make me angry!"), then work those changes in along with whatever bouncing around you have to do to properly react.

Personally, I think this interplay is what makes this site so much fun. And my stories have taken all kinds of twists and turns I never woul dhave come up with because one of my partners went a totally different way than I had planned.

Another method for co-writing? Send in just your next move and/or line and then wait for a response form your partner as to their next move/line. Then once you have the whole thing plotted, then you do the writing bit and send it for final approval. Another fun way to do it.

That might look something like this after an exchange or two. Each color is a seperate exchange.

Jill -

Well, it's time to knock out that thread. I'm so hyped that Damien is making a comeback. I have so missed him on the boards! And so cool that TJ gets to be the one to "welcome him back" Anyway, here's what I'm thinking so far:

*TJ walking down the path at the park smoking a cig while he talks out loud*
TJ: Man, I can't believe Damien left us all hanging. When are we supposed to nail this heist down?
*Damien jumps out from behind a bush*
D: Dude! Stop your whining! I had to see a man about a horse."
*TJ claps a hand to his chest, feignign heart attack*
TJ: Dude! What the hell? You're gonna' kill me here!
*Doesn't wait for a response, just runs and bear hugs Damien*
*Damien accepts the hug awkwardly, without really returning it. Then extracts himself and motions as if dusting himself off*
D: Down boy, I just bought this suit. Don't need any of your drool over it. Besides, it's been what? A month?

This would go on back and forth until TJ's writer came to a point he felt the post had reached a plot point, maybe where they finally get to brass tacks talking about the heist, or when Damien's drop dead hot new girlfriend shows up, giving us a hint as to what he's been up to while he's gone. Or whatever. Just remember, each color change is a new PM back and forth. The parts in the asterisks are obviously the actions, and the space to fill in the prose about the weather, thoughts, etc. Then the bits after the quotes owuld be the dialogue.

All in all, what I'm trying to say is that if you have longer, fuller posts it makes it much easier to for the rest of us to read it and follow your story. Don't be afraid to backtrack a little if you really want to hit a move or two (so to speak) from your character's perspective. TJ got all the way to the new girl popping out, but Damien wants to show it from his perspective, the pride of revealing his new hottie arm candy? Go ahead, we'd love to see it. Just keep the hting moving after that up to the next plot point.

All that being said, the most important thing is to keep writing. Just remember, the thought and effort you put into writing is going to weigh on the thought and effort your readers put into following your story!

This has given me a good idea as to how to move things along.

Thank you very much for the elaboration on character-posting rules too...

Woot!